Afghanistan – Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West (IDEA-NEW)

Increasing Licit Livelihood Opportunities in Rural Areas

Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives – North, East and West (IDEA-NEW) is a USAID-funded initiative in Afghanistan that began in March 2009. IDEA-NEW provides agricultural incentives and economic alternatives in the poppy-prone regions of Afghanistan, continuing USAID’s agricultural sector efforts to promote legal productive agriculture in rural areas and to curb narco-trafficking.

IDEA-NEW targets all agricultural framework components including agriculture production, rural enterprise and infrastructure development, financial service access and value chain development for key regional industries and trade corridors. At every step, the program works in collaboration with national, provincial and district level offices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, as well as provincial governors’ offices. Provincial reconstruction team representatives (U.S. government civilians, coalition military forces and ADT) play a strategic role by identifying narco-insurgent areas for coordinated and targeted development activities—both short-term community-constructed infrastructure programs that inject cash into local economies and long-term rural job creation and programs promoting women’s economic inclusion. IDEA-NEW is implemented by three partners: ACDI/VOCA in the North/Central Region; DAI in the East and West; and Mercy Corps in the Northeast.

Within the agricultural component of IDEA-NEW, the project seeks to improve the quality of agricultural production and services. The infrastructure component aims to improve access to quality irrigation, electricity, cold storage, transportation and other infrastructure. ACDI/VOCA is also working to increase private sector partnerships between farms/agribusinesses and successful local and international firms in order to promote business development. Finally, the small grants component encourages strengthening of producer organizations, trade and business associations, and community-based organizations.

Specific activities related to agricultural development include:

• Melon fly control training, in which 29,736 farmers were trained on integrated pest management principles
• Two-wheel tractor demonstrations
• Oilseed processing demonstration facility
• Planting of 100 new hectares of almond orchards for 200 different individual orchards through public-private partnership
• Livestock de-worming campaigns which resulted in 27,2699 animals being dewormed in 324 villages of Faryab
• Stone fruit/pomegranate crop management training
• Vineyard improvement through trellising for 100 hectares of vineyards
• Farmer field school training held for 1,900 farmers in four provinces
• Strengthening animal health and production
• Village milk processing

Activities related to infrastructure development have included:

• Rehabilitation of a major road, which repaired 52 km of road, creating 13,459 person days of work and injecting $234,000 into the local economy
• Construction of microhydropower plants, which have supplied power to over 900 rural families

Ag-retailing business development activities include:

• The formation of six agriculture retailing associations and 117 agricultural retailing shops
• Agriculture association business trainings
• Twenty-five annual crop demonstrations held to introduce new agricultural practices to communities
• Distribution of agribusiness supplies such as two-wheeled tractors

For more information, contact Helen Palfreyman at hpalfreyman@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 8/10

PDF version of profile (800 KB)